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Google Earth can be used to create a timelapse of any place on Earth between 1984 and 2022! In their own words;

Timelapse in Google Earth is the largest video on the planet, of our planet. We hope that this perspective of the planet will ground debates, encourage discovery and shift perspectives about some of our most pressing global issues. Link

I am obviously aware that humans are irreversibly changing the planet, but the speed of the change is still striking - as this video of the Amazon rainforest demonstrates.

On a more light hearted note, it is fascinating to watch large scale infrastructure being built, such as Hong Kong’s airport

and the infamous world island project

Teaching Geography from Space

Finally putting my Geography AS level to work, it is really interesting to watch this river in Peru meander through the flood plain leaving oxbow lakes in its wake. Obviously you see diagrams of this process in Geography lessons, but it is so cool to see it happening for real.

This video of the Massachusetts coastline also does a great job at showing the power of coastal erosion and spit formation.

Earth Engine

Not just pretty visuals, Google Earth engine can be used to monitor crop health, air quality levels and algae blooms. Their aim is to streamline the data processing of large geospatial datasets, allowing scientists and policy makers to focus on the impactful research.

Much of this data is provided free by the United States Geological Survey, NASA and ESA through their fleet of Earth observation satellites, such as Sentinel.

In this video, they demonstrate how you can monitor crop health for individual fields over time!

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